About two kilometers astride the well-laid tarmac road along the Adjumani route from Atiak Town Council in Northern Uganda is a member-based climate-resilient goats’ breeding farm.
Rose Abwoyo is one of the members of this communal goat farm. She not only faced the headache of declining food harvest due to unreliable rainfalls but also the scars of the northern armed conflict of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Abwoyo 50 sat down on a papyrus mat under the mango tree during an interview recently. She had just completed communal work on the farm, cleaning the pen and waiting to feed the goats in the afternoon.
A few minutes later, Abwoyo walked into the pen, in her hands were leaves and grasses, and the goats ran to meet her, some feeding directly from her hand while others stared at.
But she recounted the harrowing experience of the 30-year-old massacre that has left a lasting impact on the community of the survivors, negatively affecting their productivity.
Listening to Abwoyo, the horror of April 20, 1995 feels like a day-old episode whose scars are vividly seen and heard in her low tone.
Late Vincent Ottii who was Joseph Kony’s first deputy commander reportedly ordered the killing of more than 300 people in his own village of origin in Atiak in Amuru District.
Abwoyo says that before the cold-blooded massacre, the rebels marched into the trading Centre as early as 4: 00 am, overrunning the Uganda People’s Defense Forces barracks that left the village defenseless.
At least 26 of the people trying to escape the attack were gunned down as the notorious team guerillas raided the villages, looting and torching hundreds of houses and abducting 400 more people.
Abwoyo, cuddling her 2-year-old boy, was among the abductees forced to march for about 9 kilometers away from the trading Centre down the valley of Kitang stream to Ololo village in the present day Pogo Sub County.
They were screened, superintended by Ottii himself shortly before the killing.” Those mothers with children sit separately, those who want to join us and fight Museveni, sit down in a single line,” Abwoyo recalls the frightening voice of Ottii shouting orders.
And so, the commands were followed, 286 young men succumbed to Otii’s deception and “surrendered to fight Museveni” in front of the women. They lay down and little did they know their last moments had narrowed.
Abwoyo held on to her child, watched the men bow their heads down to the soil and the order from the fierce looking Otii came.
“Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! As the staccato of gunshots rang out. Some survived the bullets but were killed by machetes,” Abwoyo recounted.
She adds: “Nobody cried. My nephew was riddled with bullets, I watched him struggle to breathe. It was really cold, really cold,” she said.
In the midst of the chilling moment, Otii turned towards the women and said, “You saw what the “rusts” (meaning old guns) have done today, clap your hands,” and the frightened women clapped as if to appreciate the terrorists for killing their kinsmen. But a generation of energetic young men was lost.
Sofia Oniang also survived with her son cuddling him too as she witnessed her kinsmen begged to live amidst the reigning bullets; her story is more than the eyes could see and the mouth could confess.
“I don’t know what to tell you, but I always leave my door open while sleeping. If I close the door, those men (spirit of the dead) come and ask why I am locking them out. If I don’t close the door, they don’t come,” Oniang narrates her ordeal.
While 312 people were documented dead in the massacre, 600 more people survived with injuries and have continued to experience multiple challenges to reconstruct their lives, owing to the food crisis and failed livelihoods.
Mending the past with farming
The land in Amuru is predominantly suitable for farming, but the changing weather patterns with droughts and floods are affecting crop production and impacting the recovery of the survivors.
Abwoyo and Oniang are among the smallholder farmers in the area whose production has been affected, yet farming is where they could derive their livelihood from.
“Balaalo occupied some parts of the lands and crops can’t survive the cattle. The floods from the Unyama stream also destroy our crops but many times we don’t receive rains on time” Abwoyo explains.
Amidst the recurring droughts and floods affecting crops, Abwoyo and her peers are slowly building hope through smart farming to tackle the hostile weather.
Their nine-member group based-business solution “BENAAPS” an acronym of initials of each name of a member, comprising seven women and two men have now adopted hybrid goat breeding.
The group contributed their money received from the Parish Development Model, a government poverty eradication program, to set up the enterprise.
“I withdrew UGX. 900,000 from my phone and looked for UGX. 100,000 more to start this project together with my group members. I wanted to invest it in the garden, but I said, let me try something new,” Oniang explained.
Initially, Abwoyo and her teammates had received training on goat breeding, but that required investing capital, which none could afford.
Having pulled a total sum of UGX 10 million, through the co-funding under the climate-smart jobs, the additional UGX 8 million was externally sourced from Palladium to support their enterprise.
The farm
The pen located in Lukulia village, Atiak town council sits on approximately an acre of land, 40 meters by 40 meters in length and width built on wood measuring 25 meters long and 4 meters width is partitioned into four sections.
One of the partitions is meant for lactating goats while three others are for rest rooms. The compound has three feeding points with two water points fenced off. On the outside is two acre grazing land.
Urban Center expansion challenges farming
The Chairperson of the group, Charles Ayella, noted that breeding goats not only will mitigate food shortage from the unfriendly weather but will also address the shortage of farmland within the urban area.
Ayella explained that the urban planning from the Town Council has stretched far to the areas where survivors have concentrated, and so the farmlands have been reduced.
“You can’t now do farming within the planning area like this, but the limited space can still support goat breeding. We don’t need much land for it because this farm can tell you”, he said of their group farm.
He commended the business partnership with Palladium, which delivered them 50 goats comprising 48 females and 2 males upon constructing the structure to support the breeding.
“One has successfully delivered but 8 had miscarriages. The veterinary team have just accessed them and we are waiting for the feedback on either treating them or preventing such conditions” Ayella noted.
He is however hopeful for the ready market for goats in Uganda-South Sudan Border of Elego and South Sudan itself where the demand for goats’ meat is high.
“Majority haven’t started producing one and we are keeping it. We hope between one to two years to start getting benefit from. They brought for us 50 female goats and two males, if we keep them well, we shall get benefits because we have a ready market in Elego, South Sudan and even within Akiak Council but there aren’t enough goats to sustain the market” He added.
How the party benefits
At least 70% of the funding was through the climate-smart jobs from Palladium, with the beneficiaries contributing 30% for implementing the business module.
The farm is expected to start off its own investment with sales from goats and its product, including wastes.
At least 40% of the money released annually would go back to the Palladium to settle the loan, although it was not disclosed but the contribution of Palladium accounts for 70% to the farm.
The deduction is expected to begin after two years, projecting the readiness of the goats in the markets according to the guidelines established by Palladium for the project implementation.
And for the revolving fund that it is expected to become, the group members will then plan to share the proceeds, dividends, and investment savings to support their alternative livelihoods.
The project is jointly implemented with the actors in the private sector who are directly working with small-holder farmers in Northern Uganda, supporting the different business modules.
Solomon Etany, an official from Climate Smart Jobs, has advised the beneficiaries to take care of their project as an alternative venture for livelihoods.
“We invest 70% and the selected group invests 30%. This is a co-funding, and we hope they benefit from it” Etany observed.
The goats were delivered to the farm on April 28, 2025 and the veterinary team assesses them regularly.
The goats’ distribution pattern in Uganda
The 2021 animal census projected 3.3 million households in Uganda were keeping goats, with a total population of goats in the Country standing at 17.4 million presenting an increase of 39.4% from 12.4% in 2008 dominated by indigenous goats with 97.2% while crossbreeds stood at just 2.8%.
Western Region had the highest number of goats standing at 4.6 million, representing 26.3%, Northern followed with 4.1 million accounting for 23.4% but the sub regional analysis presents Karamoja with the highest number of goats at 2.6 million representing 15.2%.
West Nile followed with 1.99 million goats accounting for 11.5%, Ankole with 1.98 million goats at 11.4%, Bukedi with 508, 000 goats projecting 2.9% while Elgon has 569,000 goats at 3.3% respectively.
By the statistics, more households in Northern and Karamoja regions keep goats than in the central region which could be directly related to the climatic conditions that are semiarid in Karamoja and savanna grassland in Northern Uganda while the central region is tropical with more rainfall.
Challenges of hybrid goat farming
Geoffrey Akera, the veterinary Officer from Atiak Sub- County, has raised concerns about knowledge gaps among the farmers on the hybrid goat.
He noted that, unlike the indigenous goats which can survive on grasses and leaves, the hybrid requires maximum care including good nutrition from pastures, which most farms in the region do not have.
He said some plants are toxic to feed and are dangerous to the female goats carrying pregnancies, causing a sudden body reaction, potentially, miscarriage.
“The goats are resilient to harsh weather, but they can do well when you feed them on pastures, unfortunately most of our farms don’t have pastures,” Akera advised farmers.
Feeding the goats on a significant number of pastures not only boosts their defense against diseases but also increases their growth rate in size and kilograms for a better price, as he further observes.
He noted that, while the laboratory test is yet to confirm the underlying conditions causing abortions in the farms, there is a possibility of the male goats, causing the infections.
“We recommend that farmers to vaccinate their goats once a year. Brucellosis can be prevented with vaccination, but it affects reproduction if not well managed,” Akera further explained.
In a study published in April 2012 in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, researchers found some toxic plants causing abortion and neonatal mortality in goats, sheep and cattle especially in the semi-arid regions of northeastern regions of Brazil.
With an unmet domestic demand, Akera noted that goats’ meat is widely consumed not only in Uganda but Africa providing a huge ready market yet their wastes can produce organic manure to support of production which farmers in the region have under exploited.
He said, while rearing goats is relatively cheaper but the quality of the goats in the region are low because the farmers do not prioritize feeding their goats.
Although factors such as age, diet and environmental temperature significantly influences water consumption in goat, an adult minimally drinks 3 liters per day but the intake can double with the lactating ones while feeding on between 1 to 3 kilograms of pastures.
“If you take good care of a female goat, she will produce for you two other goats in a year. This one goat will also give you organic matter the same. That’s your money, that’s your livelihood from just one goat but you need good practice to get all these in one” Akera observed.
Maj. Gen. David Kasura Kyomukama, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Industry has challenged the small-holder farmers in Northern Uganda to embrace smart farming to adapt to the changing weather.
Kasura observed, without shifting away from rudimentary farming and embracing climate resilient farming, the changing weather will continue affecting the small holder-farmers causing negative impacts on crop production.
Today, like others, Abwoyo still stands on a crossroad to reconstruct her life in the post conflict Northern region.
Her struggle is far from over as the changing weather continues threatening food production in the region yet even with uncertainties, she hopes to build peace through a resilient farming in livestock.
The production of this story was supported by InfoNile in partnership with Palladium under Climate Smart Jobs
